Desert Works

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Rick Joy: Desert Works contains masterfully modern designs in rammed earth by this Tucson, Arizona based architect. Joy uses color, texture, and materials to turn the six houses shown here into spare and subtle evidence of humanity in a vast natural world. He uses a similar approach, with expanded functionality, in the three studio/office designs that complete this book. The quiet of the settings and the simplicity of Joy’s approach are perfect partners in producing architecture appropriate to a vast, unpeopled place.

Tucson Adobes

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This photo-postcard from 1906 shows several adobe buildings in Tucson, Arizona including Hotel Hall with its wide balconies.

El Paso

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Caption on the front of this postcard reads, “Old Mission Style of Adobe House, A Mexican Residence, W.H. Horne Co., El Paso, Tex.” and is postmarked from El Paso, Oct 20, 1919. Message on the back is “How would you like to live in a mud house like this?”